Moral Panic: Youth Slashing in Singapore

Moral Panic: Youth Slashing in Singapore 1. Introduction Slashing cases involving Singaporean youth gang members gain immense notoriety in 2010. The visibility of such criminal acts is amplified further by the mass media. Such reports provoke the publics latent fear of being attack by youth gangs especially so when high-profile cases such as the murder of Darren Ng at Downtown East was reported to occur in the evening between 5.30pm and 5.57pm at a time period where school-going children would be making their way home. This fuel the anxiety felt by already paranoid parents of school-going children. Moreover easy access to gruesome and explicit pictures of the victim that were splashed across both printed and online medias, further fuel widespread panic of youth gang members being more daring to strike anytime in the day. Such panic is contrary to updated statistics proving that crime rates in Singapore have been steadily on a downward trend. The question at hand then is What caused this mass panic of youth slashing in Singapore despite there being no actual spike in crime rates? In our assessment of Singapore youth slashing, several critical tenets of moral panic were identified; high concern over youth violence and gang associations, increase hostility towards the group seen as a threat (people, who were caught carrying weapons, at-risk youths), disproportionality in depiction of the problem and short life-span. This paper seeks to investigate moral panic on youth slashing in Singapore. In our essay discourse, we argue that the surge in news reports youth and gang violence attributes to the moral panic of youth slashing in Singapore. The increased visibility of such criminal acts and detailed reporting has push the issue of youth delinquency to the spot light. This paper will first consider the crime trends in Singapore with an emphasis on youth statistics to ascertain whether the crime rates show any spikes which may be a cause for panic for citizens. In our use of statistics, we assume that all criminal acts were reported accurately. Next, a study of news reports by the Singapore printed English media- Straits Times and New Paper would be conducted to see how frequent such reports were published. 2. Crime Trends in Singapore In the latest Singapore Police Force Annual 2009, it published a 10 year trend of crime rates for Singapore. It captures official crime statistics that includes only reported criminal cases. Figure 1 show that the overall crime and overall crime rate is relatively stable, reaching its peak in 2005 and gradually decreasing over the next 3 years. The year 2008 saw a marginal increase of 1% in overall crime from 32,796 cases in 2007 to 33,113. However according to the SPF annual, the crime rate per 100,000 population mark has actually fallen from 715 in 2007 to 684 in 2008. Further statistics from SPF website records that in year 2009, the number of overall crime cases recording a marginal increase of 0.2% as compared to the previous year. However, overall crime rate in 2009 was 665, lower than 684 in 2008. In 2010 then, overall Crime reportedly fell by 0.6% (or -200 cases), from 33,186 cases in 2009 to 32,986 cases in 2010. There was no mention of crime rates. Comparing the total crime cases reported in 2010, the general crime trend for Singapore would be seen as gradually decreasing. In 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010 reports, youth crime was highlighted as a key crime concern. The majority of crimes among youths were for shop theft and other theft. Only in 2007, did rioting become the second most common crime among youths. At the peak of 4608 recorded cases of crimes against persons in 2005, only 21 of them were murder cases (Singapore Police Force, 2010). 0.004% of crimes against persons were murder cases at the peak of crimes against persons. There were no statistics that confirm what percentage of the murders was committed by youths. However, the overall crime against persons has remained relatively unchanged since 2006, and we would extrapolate that the number of murder cases would accordingly remain stable. Contrary to the statistics, there was a surge in news reports youth and gang violence in 2010. In the official crime summary for 2010 it was reported that there has been an increase in the number of youths arrested for rioting from 468 persons in 2009 to 531 persons in 2010. However the number of youths arrested for rioting 2010 is still lower from that in 2007 whereby 573 persons were arrested for rioting. Yet in 2010, the responses towards youth and gang violence were more fervent. The public members were organising Citizens-on-Patrol (COP) Programmes (Lim, 2010) and increasing the frequencies of such patrols in the wake of the Bukit Panjang Slashing case. One cannot help but ponder what incites such panic among citizens regarding neighbourhood safety when the statistics seem to show a relatively stable decrease in crime rate. In our essay, we argue that the surge in news reports youth and gang violence attributes to the moral panic of youth slashing in Singapore. 3. Literature Review From a sub-cultural perspective, using Cloward Ohlin(1960) theory of differential access in illegitimate society we could see street corner gangs as a form of conflict subculture, and their senseless violence a product of status frustration. Subcultural theories looked at how crime occur as individuals internalize a set of norms and values that brings them into conflict with the law. As described by Miller (1958) in the focal concerns theory of lower class where he identified trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, autonomy, fate as concerns deeply embedded in the culture of the lower class. While many studies have attempted to explain street corner gangs and youth violence, there are also many others that looked at the social construction of the crime. Media constructions of crime have been immensely studied in the field. Research on media and crime generally agreed that crime is staple in news and popular programming and that uncommon events tend to be overrepresented (Pizarro, Chermak, Gruenewald, 2007). In studies of gang and youth violence, it is established that particular media portrayals of gangs and youths have shaped the identity of this group and the societys attitude towards them (Dorfman et.al, 1997; Thompson, et. al, 2000). Esbensen Tusinski (2007) discussed medias tendency of stereotyping gangs and their associations with violence and organizational capacity. Where youth violence is concerned, there are also studies particularly on school shootings in US public schools (Frymer, 2009; Waldron, 2002; Muschert, 2007) and knife crime in UK (Squires, 2009; Wood, 2010). The concept of moral panic however goes further to explore the profound influence of media as an instuitution of social control through amplifying deviance. Attention is given to the ideological role of media and the construction of meanings. In Cohens work of mods and rockers this concept is useful in understanding how they were labelled and controlled, as well as explaining how and why the societys reaction was formed. Concept of moral panic can be characterised by a heightened fear over evildoers and the threat they bring to society. It must have a scapegoat and an obeject to be panicked about. This usually brings about a strengthening of social contol apparatus such as stricter regulations. The indicators of moral panic included high concern over the problem, increasing hostility toward the group engaged in the behavior, widespread agreement that the threat is real, disproportionality in the depiction of problems and volalitily (Goode Ben-Yehuda, 1994). Goode Ben-Yehuda (1994) used three theories to explain what brings about the panic. Interest-group theory looks at moral entrepreneurs use media to publicise their concerns their claims taken up by significant section of the media and presented as factual (Jenkins, 1992). Elite-engineered theory see the ruling class as deliberately and conciously creating a moral panic over an issue which they see as not terribly harmful to the society to diver t the public from more serious issues. The third- grassroots theory- presented by Goode Ben-Yehuda (1994) is a bottom-up rather than top-down theory of moral panic. This theory looks at public participation in moral panic, where media then magnify real public fears about crime. There has been increasing application of this concept in studying youth and gang violence (Welch, Price, Yankee, 2002; Bartie, 2010; Killingbeck, 2001), and we believe that this concept is relevant to the current issue we are studying. Yet it would be inadequate to dismiss Singapore slashing case merely as a moral panic. As Squires (2009) argued, Cohen (1972) study of Mods and Rockers did also present how moral entrepreneurs have exploited societys reaction for their own agenda. Henceforth, this paper would like to discuss whether the attention given to local cases could be attributed to moral panic. 4. Case Studies of Youth Slashing in Singapore One of the first incidents, though did receive much attention include one at Pasir Ris on 5th March. The incident was only reported in June where the attackers were prosecuted (tell me if you find another article about this). The other is at Kallang area where a a gang of Sarawakian robbers committed 4 violent thefts, where 1 Indian national was murdered. Below are the high-profile cases: 1) 30th October 2010 at Downtown East 19-year-old Darren Ng Wei Jie died after being assaulted by a group of gang members. The attack started with staring and angry words before he was attacked with choppers and knife. A total of 11 youths were arrested and charged with murder, all of whom were Chinese. The incident was seen as gang-related. Ng was later found out to be a member of one of the gangs. 2) 8th November 2010 at Bukit Panjang 20-year-old Jayasiva Shangar Guru was slashed and stabbed by a group of gang members. The gang also attacked at Jelapang Road, where another six youths were assaulted. In both incidents, the victims were attacked after denying being a member of Pak Hai Tong gang. The attackers were believed to be members of Sah Lak Kau. There were speculations that nights incident was related to a gang fight earlier that day at 6pm where a group of men were chasing after a teenager taunting him to fight back. A total of fifteen men were arrested. Following the two high-profile slashing cases, there were reports of three others. On 18th November at Ang Mo Kio, two youths got into a dispute outside a fast-food outlet, where eventually one of them attacked the other with a knife. On 24th November at Teck Whye, an off-duty auxiliary cop was attacked by 7 street-gang members who deliberately bumped into him. In December at Yishun Ring Road, a 23-year-old man was reported to have been assaulted by 3 youths of age 13, 15 and 18 after a dispute of missing handphone. 5. Societal Response 5.1 Media Attention The series of attacks have triggered a search for explanations on the phenomenon of rising gang violence. Society seeked to explain the nature of fights, whether it is random or due to revenge, and the structure of gangs, now observed as loose associations different from tradition secret societies. Following Downtown East incident, many reports talked about youth gangs- how staring incidents can lead to violent fights, why youths joined these gangs. News reports of ensuing cases tend to remind readers about the significant attack at Downtown East and Bukit Panjang that inadvertently create concerns over gang-related violence in Singapore. There were also follow-up reports to keep public updated on who has been arrested and charged. Reports of being arrested were frequent to remind the society of the strict laws and the consequences of such acts. 40 suspected gang members were arrested in blitz carried out by police officers (Yong, 2010). Although there were no details mentioned, the report came with comments by Minister of Home Affairs, K. Shanmugam, to assure the public tough acts were taken to tackle youth gangs. Comments by public figures like Minister of MCYS also bring public attention to at-risk youths on the importance of increase community initiatives to prevent them from gang associations. Beyond print media, interactive news media seems to play a role in public discourse over the slashing incidents. According to Straits Times on 6th and 4th November 2010, online articles related to the incidents were most read and commented on. News of Bukit Panjang slashing received overwhelming amount of comments from members in ST forum and STOMP and Asiaone News (STOMP: Singapore Seen, 2010;, The Sraits Times Discussion Board, 2011; Asiaone News, 2010). While many comments were neither constructive nor substantial, they do reflect publics concern over gang violence and more importantly, question the safety and security of Singapore society. Again, comments are a way of making sense of the incidences: they were many questions of what is happening in society and the youths and whether there is a come-back of gangs. News and visuals in interactive media allow netizens to fuel speculations and fear over these incidences. 5.2 Legislation: Tackling Gangs In the wake of perceived insecurity at Downtown East, police patrols were stepped up. Zero-tolerance policy was affirmed, as showed in reports where teenagers carrying offensive weapons were arrested and suspected of involvement in gang activities (Straits Times, 2010). In a parliamentary debate, Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam stated that 93 gang members were arrested since end October 2010. He also stated the possibily of giving police additional power to prevent gang formations which include getting youths to observe curfew hours or to attend intervention programmes (Parliament of Singapore, 2011). There was also a suggestion of considering regulating the sale of knives (Parliament of Singapore, 2011). Youth crime was one of the three crime types identified by the police this year (Singapore Police Force, 2011). This is despite a decrease in total number of rioting cases last year. Police efforts of combating youth crime which include working with schools in identifying youths at risk and the StreetWise Programme- that aims to divert youths away from involvement in crime- have been re-emphasized. Such focus can be seen as a way to assure public that something is done to contain the problem of street gangs. It is clear that the series of incidents heightened the fears over youth violence. Before 2010, reports of such slashing incidents were rare.(keywords youth violence and gang violence produced mainly stories from US about American street gangs in Factiva search builder when sources are limited to Straits Times and New Paper.) And because there were little reports, there were little discussions in online forums about gang violence. In list of parliamentary reports from 2006, youth violence only came into attention recently after the incidents. Minister of Home Affairs have emphasised that the crime rates have continually decreased over the years and there is no increase of gang violence lately in Singapore (Parliament of Singapore, 2011). Henceforth, one can conclude that the attention given by the public on slashing and gang violence are a product of a moral panic constructed by the various media portrayals of the incident. 6. The Media Politics of Youth Violence in Singapore Therefore, by concluding that the public concerns on slashing and gang violence are formed as a result of moral panic, we can also conclude that the media plays a pivotal role in the construction of moral panic. The media has universally being respected as one of the major actors of disseminating information over the years. Therefore, the media has been trusted to convey the information to the public, operating as moral entrepreneurs informing the readers the goods and bads of society (Cohen, 1972). This influence has made almost every fact conveyed in the media being perceived as the truth, and when the moral value conveyed in the media intercepts with the societal value that needs to be protected, even the minor happenings in society will generate concerns and instigate fear that some measures should be taken. Thus, the media has used this authority by providing news that instigates fear to the public and arouses concerns about the slashing issue. The frequent follow-ups of the Pasir Ris slashing incident are continuous in nature whereby it tracks down from the initial crime down to the news coverage of the murdered teens funeral and the eventual revelation that he is part of the gang. This surge of news reports are aimed to cause panic and fear of the crimes, and also warns the public about the dangers of gang involvement-as seen from the reports that Darren is part of gang- and the consequences of engaging in such acts. This has instigated fear to the public whereby concerns were directed to the safety of the neighborhood, and parents not allowing their children to return home late at night since the incident happen. The incident in Bukit Panjang has encouraged more residents to take part in the Citizens on Patrol (COP) programme formed by the Zhenghua division in Bukit Panjang, in order to beef up security in the area. (Ismail, 2010) In addition to that, the interest groups, the state as well as the grassroots have used the media as a social control agent to express their concerns towards the conditions of the society. These moral entrepreneurs reach the public through the media such that the news will generate some concerns from the public and get their support in controlling the crime before it goes off-hand. The media amplified the situation by describing the criminals as young, in their teenage years and living in subcultural environment of gang violence (Wong,2010). These facts have amplified the publics response towards the crime when Teen Challenge, a voluntary welfare organization received 20 percent more calls from parents since the slashing cases. The grassroots leaders are working with schools in order to control the issue of gang violence. This is to allow the youths to feel that they are part of the community, and they will feel how important it is to feel accepted by the society. There is therefore, a profound influence of the media as a social control by reporting deviance in a moral provoking manner. 7. Criticism of Moral Panic The moral panic concept has its own criticisms. The problem lies with the proportionality between the cases reported in the media and the reality. The medias role as the medium of disseminating information is regulated by the higher political and commercial forces, The news were received by citizens at second hand which means that is has been manipulated (cohen,1972).Therefore, the citizens panic might not be justified since the reality of the case is not known. The issue reported by the media might not carry the same severity as the reality. As most of the time, the media is amplifying the slashing cases in order to instigate fear and gain concern from the public. However, in actual reality, statistics provided by the home affair ministry have shown that crime cases, which include the case of gang violence, have been decreasing (Parliament of Singapore, 2011). It is only when the citizens panic has reached its point (which means that the government has received enough support and concern from the citizens), will then the reality of the case is revealed and the public will then realize that the case that they have been panicky about was an isolated one. On example of this is the Downtown east incident, whereby Pasir Ris MP Dr Ahmad Magad said that the case is an isolated one, and the neighborhood is peaceful. This was stated after receiving feedbacks from worried parents about the safety of their children and security around the neighborhood has already beefed up by the citizen as well as police patrols (Toh, Tee, 2010). This has shown the proportionality between the case reported on media, and the reality, and the citizens agenda of using the media to exaggerate the case only to gain support and concern from the public. Another point is that the publics reaction towards the issue might not be directly due to panic generated from the media reports, those reaction might be one of the societys concern towards the issue and they would like to help the state take control of the problem before it becomes worse. This is also evident from the states intervention of the matter, describing the re-examining the sentencing options as allowing an early intervention , in order to help the gangs who are yet to commit criminal offences (Ismail,2010). This implies that the situation is not as serious as it seems to be, and the state is only exercising measures to control the spread of youth violence by controlling its growth before it is too late. In addition to that, the media labeling of the criminals highly deviant and depiction of the gangs as a danger to the not only serves as a self-fulfilling prophecy to the deviants and induce them into committing more offences in the future. Thus, the moral panic not only causes the heightened attention by the public, but also exerts the identity to the gangs that they should be feared. They gain their self-defined meaning of success through displaying their masculinities and these hateful reports are only making these gangs to pursue their goals (Mcrobbie, Thornton, 1995). On example is the follow-up of slashing cases since the downtown east incident, one of which is the Bukit Panjang slashing incident involving 6 youths. It was featured in the Straits Times entitled beware the rise of copycat gangs as well as discussion forums such as Stomp and Straits Times, sparking interests that the case in Bukit Panjang might be a sequel of copycat gang-related attacks to the one in Downtown Ea st. This shows that the moral panic caused by the media did not really help to engage the community and help to eradicate the crime but rather helped the criminals in engaging with more acts as labeling them as gangsters will just reassert their identity and make them continue with their criminal behaviors. However, the media is still regarded as the most reliable medium to get current news reports and therefore its credibility rarely goes unchallenged. The frequent follow-ups by the media, portraying the numerous pictures of the crime scene viewable on the television brings these cases close to reality, with the pictures of the victim that could engage the viewers into believing that something needs to be done with these criminals.(Estrada,2001) 8. Conclusion The case of youth slashing incidents in Singapore has illustrated to us how the media induces moral panic in a society. The concept of moral panic further to explore the profound influence of media as an instuitution of social control through amplifying deviance. Attention is given to the ideological role of media and the construction of meanings. This paper also suggests that moral panic is superficially created by incessant reporting of youth slashing incidents rather than a significant spike in crime rates. In other words, this paper argues that rather than an increase in crime rates involving youths, there was an increase in visibility of such criminals act through exposures from mass media.

Personal Mandala of Health

Good health is considered important by many people. This is reflected in the way we wish each other ‘long live’ or ‘may you be blessed with good health’ during occasions or significant events and in the huge amount of resources spent on health and wellness maintenance. Unfortunately, ‘health’ has often times been mistaken to be limited to the absence of illness. More than the freedom from debilitating effects, however, good health   should give people the active capacity to engage in productive activities and enables human beings to achieve their fullest potentials. (Hancock 1982) Thus, far from the fixation over the physical and biological aspects, there has been increasing interest on a more holistic view of health that goes beyond curing sickness or preventing it from occurring, one that actually seeks to establish contexts and environments that let people and other species achieve and maximize all aspects of their being.(Vanleeuwen, et al. 1999; Earp & Ennet 1991; KnightThe development of better strategies for health promotion has also gained significance at a time when many of the diseases plaguing supposedly modern economies such as ours are traced to the influence of lifestyle and unhealthy environmental conditions. (Earp & Ennet 1991) Today, many people suffer not only from the variety of illnesses manifested biologically but psychosocially and psychologically.The state of our health is further reflected not only in the state of ecosystems within our immediate vicinity but with the entire world. Until recently, people did not care much on whether the next generation of human beings would survive to inherent the world until persistent environmental problems forced them to confront the trade-offs of industrialization. There is much evidence that we human beings are responsible for the unhampered degradation of natural ecosystems; this has come to haunt us in the global disaster called climate change which directly threatens this planet with impending doom.In the midst of these problems, one’s perspective of health and wellness must therefore evolve from the myopic sense of the individual into one that takes into account the entire relationship of beings and organisms in the planet. Today’s notions of health must not only focus on the promotion of practices and awareness that benefit the human population but must also account for the impact of human activities on environmental balance. (Hancock 1982, 1983; VanLeeuwen, et. al. 1999)Necessarily, this translates into a radical overhaul of many of our existing beliefs, habits, and practices and may even be considered revolutionary as such ideas challenge the status quo and mainstream culture (Hancock 1982, 1993). The Mandala of Health formulated by Hancock (1993), for instance, integrates the concept of health with human and community development that urges us to look at health as a function of the interrelationship between the envir onment, economic situation, and community development. These factors are seen as necessary spheres from which health concepts, practices and public policies for health promotion must be evaluated against.More than a prescription, the mandala of health urges us to question whether prevailing conditions within and around us would actually promote or hamper the attainment of humanity’s health goals and if existing conditions of the environment, of communities, and of the socio-economic status of majority of the populations. Upon reflection, therefore, the questions of class, race, environment and gender ultimately surface when we attempt to examine closely how the development of healthy individuals, communities, and environment is linked to social justice. (Knight) It is with this keen sense of critical awareness that we understand the limitations of existing public health promotion programs in addressing serious health problems.The Mandla of Health brings us out of our comfort zones and forces us to reevaluate not only our lifestyles but our attitude towards health, which has been largely influenced and molded by consumerist culture. It gives us a framework to analyze how, to a very large extent, we have often times been guilty of the reductionist tendency to view our personal health goals as an end in itself rather than as a process. It challenges the prevailing biomedical framework which solely relies on the thorough knowledge of the human body but does not address the environment where it is situated.Clearly, there are abundant ideas on how the concept of health may be approached and problematised but their impacts in practical life—or in how its audience have actually taken up such ideas and employed them to work remains to be seen. Undoubtedly, the greater challenge does not lie anymore in figuring out the framework from which health should be established but in taking courage to implement the practical ways from which the mandala of health ma y be realized.On a personal level, I would like to raise the mandala of health to the higher challenge of human aesthetic and value sense. I think that the mandala of health is actually about balance, simplicity, and respect which is demonstrated in the way the original version of the concept was illustrated by Hancock (1993). These three concepts are interrelated in many ways, and may be utilized not only to present a general idea of how health can actually be achieved but also to reiterate the things that people actually know already but either chose to ignore or simply shrug off as nonsense.I stress the importance of balance because it addresses the main problem of humanity’s penchant for excesses that lead to psychosocial, biological, physical, and behavioral stresses on the human constitution. It is no surprise that today’s biggest health trend is stress management and stress reduction, or that many people spend money on diet fads while neglecting physical activit ies and ignoring the development of healthy eating habits. It addresses the problem of social justice by stating the need for equality in resource distribution.Likewise, the concept of balance necessitate that we consider the impact of our decisions and activities on the scale of our families, communities and immediate environments, necessitates the conscientious approach to events, phenomena, and problems, and urges us to carefully weigh between the benefit and risks on both the macro and micro levels. The concept of balance is thus intimately related to the idea of simplicity: in many ways our needs are actually simple enough but in many instances we fail to acknowledge that indeed they are, and fall trap into thinking that we will be happy—and healthy—with having too many things all at once.Simplicity is a key to health not only because it gives us stillness and rest from want, on a pragmatic level it also reduces the energy consumption in this planet expended by th e need to produce more and more things than the human population can readily consume at any given time. Respect, on the other hand, stresses the need for the realization that we are not the center of the universe and that rights are not exclusive to human beings as a species.The concept of balance is related to respect in this aspect, all our decisions must take into account not only the benefit of our actions on the sustainable life of human beings in this planet but also those of other living beings. In the end, health is not only determined by the interrelationship of the concrete factors and systems that influence how we function physically, mentally, and spiritually but also by the highest ideals enshrined in the value systems of human beings that enable us to discern what is true, good, or just and makes us one with nature. While this is perhaps the simplest framework, yet is perhaps the hardest to practice in real life.Works Cited:Earp, J. E. & S.A. Ennet (1991). Conceptual m odel for health education research and practice. Health Education Research, 6(2):163-171.Knight, James. (  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ). Models of Health.Hancock, T. (1982). Beyond health care: creating a healthy future. The Futurist, 16(4): 4-13.Hancock, T. (1993). Health, human development, and the community ecosystem: three ecological models. Health Promotion International, 8(1):41-47.VanLeeuwen, J. A., Waltner-Toews, D., Abernathy, T., & B. Smitt. (1999) Evolving models of human health toward an ecosystem context. Ecosystem Health, 5(3): 204-219.

My Experience In My Life - 1014 Words

Growing up it was always tremendously hard for me. My life was always at a disadvantage and it felt as if i was never completely happy. When i was five years old, just graduating kindergarten and going into first grade, my parents split up. I was never given the opportunity to chose who i wanted to live with, so my mom gained custody of my twin sister and i. I obviously was only five years old and i was not capable of understanding what was going on at the time. As i got older, it got harder for me. My parents had always put me in the middle of situations. My mother did not communicate with my father and therefore they made my sister and i the messengers. It was always a sticky situation and i never wanted to be in the middle of it. Every†¦show more content†¦I was not aware of anything that had happened and i was in and out for hours at a time. I was rushed to Saint Francis hospital where they tried to perform surgery. I was then transferred to Westchester childrens hospita l when i was put under for the third time. I had to wear a full leg cast for six weeks, following a half leg cast for four. My mother was beyond furious with my father for letting his child race that day. She was not aware of it and had no idea i was in the hospital until 6 hours later. After that incident my mother never agreed with anything my father did and in fact did not want me spending time with him. I of course still saw him whether my mother like it or not. My father had gotten married and soon began to distance himself from his kids and never saw how it affected my sister and i. My step mothers children were all three years to five years older than me. Her youngest son was not the nicest out of the bunch, and he had this sort of attraction towards me. I never saw the difference between right and wrong and how a step brother should act towards her step sister because i was only about thirteen at the time. My step brother would pick on me in a different kind of manner. He w ould lock me in his bedroom with him and tickle me to the point where i would be screaming to let me out. I did not know at the time that it was wrong, until a year later when i came out and told my mother that he was sexually harassing me and i wanted it to end.Show MoreRelatedMy Experience In My Life742 Words   |  3 Pagesone has a perfect life or even a perfect family. At times I have experienced what losing someone or something that meant so much to me. I always wondered to myself about why these situations happen to me, which also led me to put myself in a depression stage. My father was diagnosed with liver cancer and infection in his stomach area in March 2015. As he was in and out of the hospital. First, Growing up I never had a good life but I was lucky to have both of my parents in my life. 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This day was and still is important to meRead MoreMy Experience In My Life905 Words   |  4 Pagesmajority of my life I have belonged in the little world, stretching from Chicago to Cleveland and South Bend to Nashville. The boundaries of my known world have always felt like a limiting factor in my life. While my friends ventured to far away lands every year, I would spend the night at my grandparents house or we would make a day-trip to a city. With spring break approaching my family and I were going to change that, we were going to South Carolina. One dreary cold Indiana morning my family andRead MoreMy Personal Experience : My Experience In My Life1003 Words   |  5 Pagesdifficult to write about my life—not because I do not know what to say, but because I am often fearful of sharing my experiences and having them impact how people view me. My identity and upbringing are not necessarily unique, but I have been in situations that society tends to be uncomfortable with. 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My whole world was filled with the rattling sounds coming from the dreaded training wheels. Everything would always come to a stop whenever I would hit each bump. â€Å"I need to get these thing off!† I thought constantly. The training wheels were such a nuisance because they gave me a wobble that kept me off balance, and they provided no extra speed. There

A Media Controlled Race Riot - 900 Words

A Media Controlled Race Riot The very first thing millions of people do when they wake up is check their phones, and log into whatever social media sites that they are a part of, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and many more. On these sites, there are several ads or newspaper articles depicting different political messages or views. These advertisements and news articles can easily influence our thoughts on different aspects of life, such as religious view or racial identity. During the era of the race riot, the people of this time had their own version of media: the newspaper. More often than not, the first thing people did in the morning was read the newspaper. The image that comes to mind is businessmen sitting on trains or families gathered together in the morning reading the newspaper. In 1908, Springfield, Illinois experienced a race riot that was mainly controlled by the opinion they were receiving from the material from the media that they read and viewed. Material that was available to the people of Springfield were newspapers and occasionally plays. A play that was taking place almost a year before a riot was seriously on the minds of Springfield citizens was The Birth of a Nation. A major occurrence that happened almost every time this play was to take place in a northern community was interracial violence in and around the theaters that offered it (Roche pg. 25). It may have been a mistake, but Springfield’s black newspaper the Forum claimed thatShow MoreRelated African-American Crime: Cause and Effect Essay1729 Words   |  7 Pagesovercrowded slums and angry immigrants. Black people immediately fell victim to race riots. White people joined together in their hatred of blacks. They did not want to lose their jobs to savages. Immigrants already had low paying jobs and black people would take even lower wages. Major race riots broke out into seven popular urban cities, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia , Pittsburgh and St. Louis. The riots killed mostly black people however whites were also killed. There was onlyRead MoreChicago Race Riots Of 19191197 Words   |  5 PagesChicago Race of Riots of 1919 The Chicago Race Riots of 1919 helped to further show how African Americans are looked as inferior, not just within the citizens of the United States, but the Congress and criminal justice system. White and black beaches were separated by an invisible line; the black beach on 25th street and whites on 29th street. The story of Eugene Williams swimming on the beach worsened after a white police officer, Dan Callahan, refused to intervene or arrest the group of whiteRead MoreThe Man Of The People By Thomas Jefferson925 Words   |  4 Pagesrepresented the African race more than any other minority. Paradoxically dubbed the â€Å"man of the people†, Thomas Jefferson illuminated his true interpretation of equality in Notes on the State of Virginia. â€Å"We have had under our eyes the races of black and of red men, they have never yet been viewed by us as subjects of natural history,† he wrote. â€Å"I advance it... that the blacks... are inferior to the whites in the en dowments both of body and mind (history).† Despite what the media conveys, this beliefRead MoreThe Religious Issues Of The Malay Population During Colonial Rule1262 Words   |  6 PagesThrough an analysis of the Maria Hertogh riot case study, we are able to gain deeper insights into British’s colonial policies in their management of the religious issues of the Malay population in the post-1945 era. At the same time this also allows us to see how race intersect with class as the Malay population constitutes the lower income class in Singapore at that time. Using Maria as a case study, we are also able to see how gender interact with race and class during colonialism as things mayRead MoreThe Report From Raleigh s News And Observer The Ghost Of 1898970 Words   |  4 PagesThe report from Raleigh’s News Observer â€Å"The Ghost of 1898; Wilmington’s Race Riot and the Rise of White Supremacy† by Timothy B. Tyson discussed the historical event that is crucial, yet was rarely spoke of until recent years. On November 10, 1989 Wilmington—a majority black populated city as well as center of African-American political and economic success—a group of white supremacist burned down the building the local black newspaper resulting in the killing dozens of black residents, banishmentRead MoreRacial Tensions And Treatment Of Blacks By Secondary And Primary Sourcing1430 Words   |  6 Pagessimilarities still present in modern-day Atlanta. The evidence presented in each article all focus on one main topic, race dictating the restriction and treatment of blacks by secondary and primary sourcing. All events noted occurred throughout the early 20th century in Atlanta, and the causes directly correlate to an underlying cause of each event. The 1906 Atlanta Race Riots, the case of Leo Frank, was consequential, mainly due to racial heterogeneity and traditional beliefs of white supremacyRead MoreFeature Article Racism- to Kill a Mockingbird Etc1627 Words   |  7 Pagesinfluenced by the values and beliefs of their family. If these attitudes are racist then innocent pick up these traits when usually they don’t see these differences. Society and media provide people with different aspects and feelings towards racism. The media are always exploiting riots and bashings such as the Cronulla riots when they occur, over exaggerating them when they are because of a simple thing like, the differences in cultures and peoples’ beliefs. People get indignant when they hear aboutRead MoreSignificant Events that Shaped America between 1940 and 19801499 Words   |  6 Pagesthat shaped America. Events in history are not defined by how they actually happened but how they were interpreted. Be it by the people of that land or other lands looking in. In what ways do people receive the important news? News comes through media outlets such as radio, newspaper and television. Americans especially tend to take things at face value. â€Å"This information must be true, I read it in a newspaper.† In 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and in the coming weeks thanks to newspaper, menRead MorePrejudice and Discrimination o f the Chinese in Indonesia1096 Words   |  5 Pagessome Chinese people in Indonesia are still considered only by their Chinese heritage, others have assimilated and are considered Chinese Indonesian by marrying local Indonesian people or gaining Indonesian citizenship. (cite) The difference between race and ethnicity is the biggest issue when it comes to the identity of Chinese Indonesians. Discrimination and prejudice have been present against Chinese in Indonesia since the 17th century, when the first Chinese people immigrated. Although thereRead MoreThe Black And White Cultures1298 Words   |  6 Pagesan after thought 100 years ago. The Black culture has spread into mainstream media where they have pinched and borrowed our unqualified image. The culture is so central that the white race has misappropriated our sound, characteristics, likeness, and images to pass off as their own. Nevertheless, with strong consideration of the issues of myopia between the black and white cultures, this is a theory with the outer media that some may find conflicting. The current generation may find it difficult